In time of need
by LadyNightRunner
Summary: Sephiroth really, really does NOT like being touched. Zack knows this, as he's been thrown through a few walls to make the lesson stick. But he knows when he's needed, and he'll always be there, even if Sephiroth doesn't want him just yet.


Not entirely sure here the idea came from, but it turned into this, and so here you have it, a tale of snuggles, hallucinations, fever, and the hell Mako can wreak on someone.

* * *

The first time Zack greeted Sephiroth with a hug, he was flat on his back on the floor under a large dent in the wall before he could blink.

The second time, Zack actually tried to hug the General (the first time had been without thinking). He wound up with a broken collarbone.

The third time, Zack thought to announce his presence. Sephiroth was half out of the way before he could be grabbed, which meant his arm was caught in a bear hug and Zack pouted at him.

The fourth time, Sephiroth had just come from two hours spent in the labs and was one big bruise. Zack's enthusiastic hug prompted a pained yelp and ended with Zack going right through a window and landing on his back in a mud puddle.

After that, Angeal had a long talk with Zack about touching people who didn't like to be touched, and Zack stopped trying to hug Sephiroth all the time. He still did, now and then, usually with a warning that went something like this:

"Seph, I'm gonna hug you."

"Must you?"

"Yes."

"Get it over with."

Things changed when Angeal headed out on a monster extermination assignment that was slated to last two weeks, leaving Sephiroth and Zack without a buffer between them. By this point in time, Sephiroth was tolerant of Zack, even holding conversations with him when he wasn't too busy. He was not, however, willing to put up with Zack for more than three hours without a break. Zack, who respected this but refused to do anything the easy way, took to carrying an egg timer around with him, which he would set for three hours when he arrived in Sephiroth's office and leave when the buzzer sounded, provided he wasn't removed from the premises first.

This arrangement worked just fine, until, one week in, Zack entered the office to find that Sephiroth wasn't there. This was odd, as his secretary had said he would be in all afternoon and that he hadn't gone anywhere. Unless the man had climbed out the window, he ought to be there. Of course, it _was_ Sephiroth, so he might have done just that. Zack shrugged, settled down in his favorite corner of the office, and got back to work on a logistics problem one of the older 1st Class SOLDIERs had given him to solve.

Some twenty minutes later, something behind the desk stirred. Zack looked up just in time to see a booted foot stretch out around the edge of one leg of the desk for a moment, then retreat.

Zack got up at once and went to lean over the desk.

Sephiroth was curled up on the floor behind it, his coat folded up under his head. He was on his side, arms tucked close to his chest, hair splayed out on the thin carpet, thumb in his mouth.

It would have been cute if Zack hadn't immediately wondered what was wrong with him.

"Seph?" he tried. Sephiroth didn't even twitch. "Uh…Sephiroth? Sir?"

Nothing.

Zack strode over to the door and peeked out into the outer office.

"Um…did he go to the labs today?" he asked, directing his question at Estrella, Sephiroth's current secretary. Most of them only lasted a few weeks, scared off by the lack of response to their cleavage, their tight skirts, and their artificial tans, but Estrella was five feet of caffeinated Costa native, and she had been in the position for six months already, guarding Sephiroth's office against all undesirable visitors. Thankfully, he had finally won her over and she didn't run him off all the time.

"Mmmhm. Got back about an hour before you got here. Why?"

"He's just acting a little weird, is all."

Estrella sighed.

"No wonder. I _wish_ he'd go back to his quarters after being down there."

"You an' me both. Thanks."

"Any time."

He closed the door and looked back at Sephiroth, frowning. He knew that the things Hojo did to him in the labs were often more extreme than those done to other SOLDIERs, and that there was never any predicting what his reaction might be to whatever Hojo added to his shots, but he'd never seen him fall asleep like this. Scratch himself bloody in attempt to alleviate itching, yes; vomit until he passed out, yes, several times; talk to a wall for twenty minutes and then attempt to leave the room through an open window, yes; go completely batshit insane and attack the first thing that moved near him, yes. But never just sleep.

Zack decided he would have to wake Sephiroth up. He knelt beside him, reached out, and shook his shoulder. Sephiroth grunted.

"Come ooooon, you can't just lie here, I'm not a medic. I dunno what's wrong with you if you don't _tell_ me."

Miraculously, Sephiroth rolled onto his back and opened one Mako green eye.

"Zack?" His voice was rough with sleep.

"Uh…hi. Are you alright?"

Sephiroth shook his head.

"No."

"Can you tell me what's wrong?"

"I…I'm not entirely sure myself."

"Well that isn't good. You know you've been sleeping behind your desk, right?"

He nodded slowly, running his fingers through his hair.

"Yes. I was unable to focus on my paperwork and felt it would be best if I lay down."

"Why not on the couch?"

"The floor was closer."

Zack made a frustrated sound and stood up, then reached for Sephiroth's hand. "Come on, if you're gonna sleep, do it on the couch."

Sephiroth took Zack's hand and let himself be pulled upright. When he was standing, however, he swayed dangerously and grabbed at Zack, getting a handful of thick black hair in one hand and the front of Zack's shirt in the other. Zack yelped in pain.

"_Don't_," Sephiroth breathed.

"Don't _what_?"

"Don't move."

"Why not?" Zack demanded. Sephiroth's grip was tightening, making his scalp burn with pain.

"I feel sick."

"Sick?"

"Yes."

"Like…just icky sick, or gonna puke sick?"

"The second one."

Zack paled.

"Please don't barf on me."

"I don't intend to."

"Okay. Just…let me know if I need to get out of the way."

Sephiroth nodded, jaw set, and closed his eyes. He stood very still for a few minutes, then took a slow, careful breath.

"You can move now."

"I think you need to go home," Zack said quietly.

"Don't be ridiculous."

"Seph, you were asleep on the floor, you can't stand up straight without help, and you nearly barfed just now."

"I can…I can read reports on the couch."

"I'm sure the suits will love getting reports covered in your puke."

"I have better self control than that."

"You were just asleep on the freaking _floor_!"

"Your point?"

Zack made a wordless sound of frustration and pushed Sephiroth over to the couch, then stamped back to the desk to retrieve his coat.

"Here," he said shortly, shoving it into Sephiroth's hands. "Put it back on. Then we're going back to your quarters."

Sephiroth's eyes narrowed at the instructions.

"You have no business giving me orders," he growled.

"Yeah, well, you have no business acting like there's nothing wrong with you. Angeal will _kill_ me if he comes back and finds out you did something stupid like running yourself ragged while you're sick and wound up in the hospital when I was here to keep you from doing it, and that's worse than anything you can do to me. Look, I'll come back and get your stupid paperwork if it means that much to you. Okay?"

"What if I say no?"

"Then I'm gonna pick you up and carry you out of here over my shoulders, and I won't come back for the papers."

"I could report you for insubordination."

"Doesn't count if you're not fit for duty. What's it gonna be?"

Sephiroth considered it for a long moment, looking up at Zack, then at the door.

"I will return to my quarters and rest, and you will bring my reports. I require no escort on the way and no babysitter once I am there. You will leave me alone. Is that clear?"

"Fair enough, if you think you can get up there on your own."

"Of course I can."

"Then I'll meet you up there."

Sephiroth stood, shrugged his coat on, and left.

When Zack got to Sephiroth's apartment, Sephiroth was leaning heavily against the kitchen wall, head hanging, eyes closed. There was a shattered mug and a pool of water on the floor at his feet. Zack put the reports down on the nearest flat surface and hurried over to him.

"What happened?"

"Vertigo," Sephiroth said softly.

"Yeah. You know what? You're going to bed."

"Zack, no, that's not-"

"Don't you argue with me. You're getting a list of reasons for me to call you in sick tomorrow that's as long as I am tall, do you realize that? If we swapped places, they'd've had me down in the Clinic already. I don't know what they did to you in the labs today and I don't care, but it's screwing with your system and you are _not_ fit for duty. You're going to bed and you're staying there. Got it?"

"You can't-"

"I just did!" Zack put an arm across Sephiroth's shoulder. When it wasn't immediately shrugged off, he slid it down, bent to get his other arm behind the general's legs, and picked him up. Sephiroth made a startled noise and grabbed Zack's hair again.

"What do you think you're doing?" Sephiroth demanded.

"Taking you to bed. Fuck, stop pulling my hair like that! It's still attached to my scalp, and I want it to stay there!"

Zack carried Sephiroth into the bedroom and put him down on the bed. Before Sephiroth could get up, move away, or even order Zack out, the younger SOLDIER was on his knees on the floor, unbuckling Sephiroth's massive boots. Sephiroth started to protest, then sighed heavily and lay flat on the bed, letting Zack do whatever he wanted. He stayed unresponsive when Zack pulled him back into a sitting position to unbuckle his belt and harness. When Zack went for the zip on his pants, though, he slapped Zack's hand out of the way.

"I can take those off myself," he said shortly.

"Fine. Get 'em off. I'm gonna get the lights."

"I need my reports, Zack."

Halfway to the door, Zack turned and fixed Sephiroth with a glare that would have made Angeal proud. It made Sephiroth want to stand up, salute, and take whatever orders he might be given.

"_No_," Zack growled. "I'll read them. I'll take some notes, and if you're in better shape in a few hours, I'll give you a summary of each one and you can sign whatever needs signing."

Sephiroth nodded dumbly. It didn't make sense that this kid some seven years his junior could make him internally snap to attention. Under other circumstances, he would have analyzed the situation, but he was too tired and muddled to bother. He finished wriggling out of his pants, tossing them to the floor instead of putting them away as he usually did, and crawled under the blankets.

"Just get some rest, Seph," Zack said, his voice softening. "And holler if you need anything."

Sephiroth hadn't intended to actually sleep, but his body had other ideas and he dozed off in minutes.

Sephiroth woke at sunset, sweaty, shivering, and confused. He was only certain of two things: there was something waiting in his bedroom that wanted to kill him, and he was weak enough to make an easy target. He groped between the mattress and the box spring for the knife he kept there in case of emergency. The sheath was stuck, but the knife slid free easily enough. He brandished it at a menacing shadow; with the sun just going down, the room was full of them, ink black and closing in on his bed. Sephiroth drew himself into a defensive crouch and prepared to do battle.

Zack sat cross-legged on the kitchen counter, munching his way through his second apple of the afternoon while he read the third-to-last report. A notebook sat on the counter near his foot, the open page mostly covered in scribbled notes.

Something in the bedroom crashed, making Zack jump. He put the report down and looked towards the door, listening for another noise. After a moment, something hit the door with a solid 'thunk' and then bounced to the floor.

"Seph?" he called, swinging his feet off the counter. An enraged yell answered him, though if it meant anything, it wasn't in any of the three languages Zack knew. "Sephiroth? You okay in there?"

A short-bladed throwing dagger buried itself in the door, the last inch and a half of the blade protruding through the door to Zack's side.

"I'm coming in!" Zack borrowed a heavy plastic cutting board and a frying pan to protect himself and opened the door, not sure what he might find.

In the bedroom, Sephiroth had backed himself into the corner between his nightstand and the wall, holding his knife out in front of him in one hand and preparing to throw his lamp with the other. He launched it just as Zack opened the door. Zack yelped and dove to catch it before it could hit the wall.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Zack demanded, eyes on the lamp in his hands. Then he looked up at Sephiroth, and he got his answer.

Sephiroth was ashen and dripping with sweat, his hair matted down with it. His eyes were wide, the pupils fully dilated, and glowing brightly. He was panting hard and shifting from foot to foot, never staying fully still.

"It wants to kill me," he whispered.

"What does?"

"I don't know what it is. But it's in here. It knows I'm weak."

"You're hallucinating, Seph."

"You can't see it?"

"Nope."

Sephiroth hesitated, his knife hand wavering. Even in the middle of a feverish frenzy, he was still a very intelligent man, and some part of his brain recognized that there was no such thing as an invisible foe.

"You're in the middle of a Mako burn, Seph. The fever is making you see things."

"But…it's going to kill me."

"No, it's not."

A faint breeze through the partially open window ruffled the curtains and a large shadow flickered across the floor. The sensible, non-crazed part of his brain vanished under a tide of fear and a desire for self-preservation.

"It is. The moment you close the door, it will come back out and kill me."

Zack sighed.

"Look, I'm too strong and healthy for it to want to bother with, whatever it is. How about I stay with you?"

"I don't need a nursemaid."

"You're really sick, Seph, and you're gonna get worse if you push yourself too hard. You know that. I'll just stay here and keep watch. Wake you up if anything shows up."

"I don't want to die," Sephiroth whispered.

"And you're not gonna." Zack put the cutting board and frying pan where he was fairly sure Sephiroth wouldn't get them and slowly made his way across the bedroom, holding his empty hands out before him to assure his friend that he was unarmed.

"What if it kills you, too?"

Zack shook his head and reached out, gently prying the knife from Sephiroth's fingers. He put it on the nightstand for the moment, then took Sephiroth's hand and curved it around his bicep.

"You feel that?" he asked, flexing the muscle. "I've got a whole body like this. And I have your knife. Nothing is gonna get you while I'm here. I've got your back, okay?"

"I…okay." Sephiroth squeezed Zack's arm to reassure himself, then sat down slowly on the edge of the bed. He watched, glassy-eyed, as Zack picked up the things he had thrown, yanking the daggers out of the door and the wall, kicking a few things out of the way.

When Zack returned to the bed, he gently pushed Sephiroth back down onto the bed, then pulled the rumpled blankets up over him. A Mako burn couldn't be treated, medically speaking. All that anyone could do was stay still, rest, and wait for the Mako in their body to reach an equilibrium.

"There ya go, you just go back to sleep now. I'm going to sit against the door, so I can see the whole room."

As Zack headed for the door, Sephiroth reached out and grabbed the back of Zack's belt.

"No. Stay with me."

"I am staying, Seph. I'm not leaving the room."

"Stay here. Where I can feel you."

"Er…what?"

He stroked Zack's back, calmed by the shift of muscle under the fabric of his shirt. "You're safe."

"Um….I guess I can do that."

Satisfied, Sephiroth released Zack's belt and watched him round the end of the bed, coming up to sit against the headboard on the other side of the bed. Once he had stopped shifting to get comfortable, Sephiroth took his hand, lay back down, and fell asleep almost instantly.

Zack was dozing when Sephiroth woke up next. He dimly registered the large, warm, comforting presence beside him, but he was more concerned with how he was feeling; every bone in his body ached, deepening to a sharp throbbing at his joints. He was shivering and drenched with sweat, and his stomach rolled in a way that could mean only one thing. He wasn't entirely sure if he ought to get up or not.

Beside him, Zack, mumbled something and shifted, his hand sliding over Sephiroth's side in a smooth arc of warmth. Sephiroth decided to stay put- there was no warm lump of safety breathing loudly in the bathroom, and he was more concerned with the potential threats hiding in the thick shadows that now populated the bedroom than he was with getting out of bed. If he stayed still and breathed, then he should be able to maintain control of his stomach.

This worked for a while, and Sephiroth began to drift off again. He might have fallen asleep were it not for one of the peculiarities of the ShinRa building: while the building itself responded very little to the shift in temperatures outside, the windows and casements were very prone to the usual expanding and shrinking. Just as Sephiroth was about to fall asleep, the bedroom window shifted with a noise like a rifle shot. Sephiroth jerked awake, pushing himself against the headboard and reaching for the knife that was no longer where he kept it. The sudden movement made his stomach lurch and his head spin.

Zack woke to find Sephiroth leaning over the side of the bed, clutching the edge of the mattress so tightly his nails had torn through the fitted sheet in several places, panting harshly. The air was thick with the acrid stink of vomit.

"Seph?" Zack drew himself up on his knees and placed a hand on Sephiroth's back to steady himself as he leaned over his friend.

Sephiroth shuddered and tried to pull himself back onto the bed. His arms were shaking too much to manage, but just as he was about to slide back into his former position, Zack's hands slipped under his arms and hoisted him up.

"You just can't catch a break, can you?" Zack asked softly.

"Apparently not."

"You gonna puke again?"

"I don't know."

"Mind being alone in the bed while I clean up?"

"Go ahead."

As soon as Zack had left the bed, Sephiroth was acutely aware of the dark shapes, shadow on shadow, lurking in the corners of the room, and just as aware of the sudden loss of heat- Zack had been distracting his senses from the chill of his fever. He curled up in as tight a ball as he could manage and pulled the blankets up over himself. Unfortunately, when he wasn't sick, he had a very high tolerance for cold weather, and so had only a few light blankets on the bed.

Zack bustled around the room, flicking a light on and making quick work of the mess on the floor. While he was up, he also picked up the things Sephiroth had thrown earlier, piling the weapons on the dresser and putting everything else back where it belonged.

"There we go," he said, dusting his hands off. "You still awake?"

"I am."

"Feeling any better?"

"N-no." Sephiroth drew the blankets tighter around himself, still shivering hard enough to make him stutter.

"Figures. I'd go track down some medicine for you, but I doubt it'd work on whatever's wrong with you." Zack padded back over to the bed and tugged the blankets back far enough to expose Sephiroth's hair. He stroked the thick, damp silver hair gently. "Do you want anything, or should I go?"

"I…" He hesitated, unsure if what he wanted was appropriate to ask for. It had been acceptable to ask when he was half out of his mind with fever, and another thing entirely to ask for it when he was mostly in his right mind. "There is one thing."

"Yeah?"

"Stay and k-k-k-k-keep me warm-m." He blushed as he said it, recognizing that the request and the way he said it sounded like something out of one of Genesis' silly soap operas.

"You sure?"

"I don't keep-p many b-b-b-blankets in the apartment, and you are the only other s-source of warmth easily accessible. Of course I understand th-that if you-" Zack's hand covered his mouth, cutting him off.

"Last I checked, you hated it when anybody touched you. Even people you get along with, like me."

"Your t-t-touch is less…repellant than m-most others. And-d I suppose I am too d-d-d-defensive."

"You sure you want me to stay in the bed with you? Not gonna change your mind and throw me across the room or anything?"

Sephiroth chuckled humorlessly. It was sad that Zack's questions had basis in truth, but the cold, sterile hands of scientists had raised him, and they had never taught him to appreciate the touch of another person. The idea took some getting used to, and he so rarely had a choice in the matter that he always said no without even considering it.

"Please?"

"Lemme just put away the stuff I had out in the kitchen before your freakout, okay?"

He nodded, rather than try to say anything and stutter again.

"Alright. Hang tight." Zack padded out of the bedroom, leaving Sephiroth to draw the blankets up close under his chin and wait.

Zack returned with a Sephiroth's cleaning bucket, lined with a couple of trash bags, and a bottle of the sport drink Sephiroth liked. He put both where Sephiroth could reach them, then moved around to the other side of the bed and began undressing.

"What are you d-d-doing?"

"Uniform pants are only sort of comfy on the inside," Zack explained, struggling for a moment with the complicated mess of buckles and straps that made up his belt and sword harness. "And I overheat in the uniform top. So I'm gonna make this easier on both of us, and just ditch the uncomfortable bits now."

Sephiroth nodded faintly. Zack looked a lot like Angeal when he was mostly undressed, though Zack had a lot less body hair. It was a little confusing- Sephiroth had been raised to consider himself something other than truly human, but he and Angeal were the same, and Zack looked so much like Angeal even though he wasn't the same sort of thing. He wasn't sure how he felt about it.

"Okay, scootch."

"Scootch?"

"Yeah. Means move over and make a little space for me."

"Oh." Sephiroth wriggled to the side. He made a small, unhappy noise when Zack pulled the covers back and cold air invaded his space. Then the cold bits were replaced with Zack bits, who was much more solid and deliciously warm. So much warmer when he was nearly naked.

"You just try and get some sleep, okay? And poke me if you need something."

"Okay."

The fever had faded completely by the following morning, a fact Zack noted when he woke and found that Sephiroth, while rather sticky, had returned to a more-or-less normal temperature, though he was happily plastered to Zack's back like an oversized koala. It took Zack several minutes to get himself untangled and off the bed.

Still mostly asleep, Sephiroth crawled out of bed in search of his errant heat source, eventually locating Zack in the kitchen. He shuffled up to him and rested his chin on Zack's shoulder, content to press up close behind him and close his eyes.

"Hi. Feeling better?"

"Somewhat."

"Not all that awake yet, are you?"

"Mmph."

Zack shrugged and moved over to the stove, where he was making an omelet. Sephiroth hooked his arms around Zack's waist and followed him.

"You hungry?"

"Not particularly."

"You're pretty coherent for someone who claims he's not really awake."

"Practice," Sephiroth grunted, nosing at Zack's neck. It was warm and smelled pleasantly masculine. "Lots of it."

Zack chuckled, reaching back to pet Sephiroth's hair. He wasn't entirely sure what had prompted this change in Mr. Personal Space Bubble the Size of the Continent, but Zack had always been happy to hug and snuggle and touch, so he wasn't complaining.

"You should go back to bed," Zack pointed out. "Your fever's down, but you had a pretty rough night."

"It's cold in there."

"Is not."

"It is."

"The bedroom is no colder than the rest of this apartment, and I'm wandering around in boxers, so it's not cold at all."

"You're warmer than the bed."

"I'm trying to make breakfast here."

"Am I getting in the way?"

"No, but-"

"You can make me a cup of tea, then."

"I _could_, but…y'know what? Nevermind. What kind of tea?"

When Angeal returned, he knew better than to ask why Sephiroth was suddenly allowing Zack to hug him, play with his hair, and just generally _touch_ him. Whatever the reason, it seemed to have been entirely voluntary, and Angeal suspected it was good for both of them.

And really, it was nice to have Zack hanging off someone else for a while.

* * *

Rate and review, my darlings! And please, send me requests. My old computer crashed and I lost the old request list. I need more to inspire me!


End file.
